New Zealand Wellington Mission

Month: January 2017

I hope that this e-mail finds you all in happy spirits! Because I am SO HAPPY. I know I say this a lot, but I just love being a missionary. Like really.

Okay but on to the stuff that you actually want to hear about! Our week was SO great! Sister Finefeuiaki is doing much better, and we were able to get a lot of work done this week! We have really been working on contacting people this week. Our area book is full of Potential and Former Investigators. (People that made contact with missionaries and wanted to learn more, or people that were taught by missionaries, and for some reason stopped taking the lessons). So we have been trying to contact all of those people this week! That was fun, because I love talking to new people.

The reason this week had so many plums is because heaps of the members have plum trees, and like all of them decided to give us bags and bags of plums. We used to go for a walk in the morning and then find a plum tree, and eat some plums for breakfast before we headed back to the flat, but now we have HEAPS so we don’t have to do that:) We literally have SO MANY plums.

Exciting news! This week we had a worldwide missionary broadcast, where the leaders of our church sort of changed the missionary schedules around! But I love the changes, because now we get to pick more of how our day goes. AND, I have enough time now to go running at night:) (Just laps around our backyard because my companion doesn’t like running… but I’ll take it:))

In other exciting news: Feilding finally got a ward mission leader! He is so onto in, and I am so excited to work with him! He is already helping us so much with our investigators and all that. WOO WOO. It’s been a good week here in Feilding. We finally had some sun after heaps of rain… but today it’s back to the rain:) Oh well! I still love it here! We find out about transfers next week! The time is just flying by! I hope I can make the most of it while it lasts! I am just bearing testimony at every opportunity and smiling as much as possible! But I love you all and wish you the best week EVER!

Spiritual thought: D&C section 4. As missionaries, we are supposed to memorize this section. It has become some of my very favorite scriptures! I just really love being a missionary, and I believe that what it says is true. I like the part where it says “The Field is white, already to harvest.” Because there are people out there that have been prepared for us to teach! But I prefer to say, ‘The FEILDING is white, already to harvest.” Hahahahahaha. Have a great week! Kia Kaha!

Oh my life what a week! Heaps to say, and so little time. Hopefully my fingers can type fast:)

First of all, the subject of this email. So every night when we get home we have to text our STL’s to tell them that we have arrived at our flats, so that they can report it to president. Well I got tired of always texting “Home.” So I started texting code words like “The eagle has landed” or “The fish is in the bowl” or “Jonah is in the whale”. Bahahahaha it’s so crack up. The STL’s told us that it is nice to have a little fun at the end of the day, and they think it is so funny. So I think I will keep it up:)

So this week started out really great! Our Sister Training Leaders came over to our flat and taught us how to properly do planning and how to be more organized in the work, which I am grateful for because I was feeling really lost:) Then, on Tuesday we had a really good lesson with one of our investigators and she said “I may be jumping the gun, but I just really want to be baptized.” Sister Finefeuiaki and I just looked at each other and couldn’t stop smiling. THEN, right after that lesson, we met up with this guy that the elders referred us to, and he said that he wants to learn more, and he has already started reading the Book of Mormon! All on his own!!! What a great start to our week!

On Wednesday, my poor companion got so sick! We were stuck in the flat all day, and all day Thursday, and all day Friday. Friday night we spent the night in the emergency room, but they still don’t know what is wrong with her! So hopefully she will get better soon! I was able to do a lot of work in our area book this week, while I was stuck in the flat! So it was actually a good thing for me! The elders in our area gave her a blessing, so hopefully she will get better this week:)

Sunday was great too! We got another new investigator named Gina! She is so cool! One of our less active members referred her to us, and the first lesson we had with her went so well! I just LOVE teaching people, and learning from them. There are so many people in this world, and I hope that in some way I can help even just one while I am here in beautiful Aotearoa!

Spiritual thought: So I have started reading the bible this week! I found this scripture that I really like! Exodus 4:10-12. It just goes to show that Heavenly Father WILL fill in our weaknesses. Because none of us are perfect, and we all need his help!

Kia Kaha! Arohanui! Have a GREAT week, and know that I love you all and pray for you all!

-Sister Weight

Photos!

Who says you can’t match your umbrella when it’s pouring rain and you are soaking wet!

This week has been pretty slow, but I will try to make it sound super interesting and exciting so that hopefully you will want to read the whole email:) Hahahaha

So on Friday this week, we had a District meeting with our Mission President and his wife. That was SO cool! Sister Hudson taught us about how to be zealous missionaries! It was pretty cool! I have always strived to be happy and positive in the work, and now I finally have a word to describe my goal: ZEAL. I think that zeal can be a synonym for diligence, and Sister Hudson said when we have zeal, we will see miracles! So whenever me or my companion gets down, we say to the other “WHERE IS THY ZEAL??” And then we just crack up. I love it. Sister Hudson made us make zeal posters to hang up in our flat, to remind us to have zeal, so mine said “Don’t be jealous ’cause I’m Zealous.” Everyone thought that was so clever. **Flips hair** I’ll be here all week:)

But yeah, so while Sister Hudson was teaching the district, we had interviews with President Hudson! He’s the man! I just love being a missionary. He is so great!

On Saturday, we had exchanges!!! I was in Palmy with Sister Ioane. She is SO cool! We work really well together, and it was a great experience to learn from her! She only has one transfer left, and I don’t know what I will do without her! She was there on my very first day, at the mission office, and I will truly miss her when she goes back to Kiribati. But the work must go on.

Other than those two little pieces of excitement, not much is new:) Sister Finefeuiaki and I are still working hard, and we are still doing the work! The weather is starting to warm up! Finally! Woop Woop! About the subject line, When life gave me lemons… so this week I was kind of upset about something and my STL suggested that I learn how to juggle, to take my mind off it. We have a lemon tree in our backyard, so all week I have been trying to learn how to juggle…. OH MY LIFE I am terrible, but it is helping. So ya never know… a couple more months of practice and I will be pro. Watch out world, I’m comin for ya:)

Woah Woah Woah calm down. This week went by so fast! (As if the other ones went by any slower….:)) Feilding is slowly but surely winning my heart. I LOVE it here! Sister Finefeuiaki and I have been doing a lot of member visits this week, and we are learning the area more! But hey, we only got lost like 8 times this week so that is an improvement… heeheehee… The area that we cover, is full of Samoans, like heaps of them. And heaps of sheep! The people here don’t really speak much english, and that is starting to be a problem when we teach people, but we are working around it! Maybe I can just learn Samoan or something…. A lot of the Samoans come here, because there is a lot of opportunity for work here! Even our bishop just recently moved here from Samoa. It’s a pretty cool culture!

But yeah this week… Where do I even start! We got to do a lot of street contacting this week as well! And I bought one of those little counter things that counts people! It is so cute! And it’s yellow. Don’t worry, Pictures will come:)

On Friday, It was Sister Finefeuiaki’s birthday! She’s 20!!! We had a few lessons that day, and then I shouted her KFC for dinner, because that is her FAVE. It was a pretty good day.

Oh but the most interesting part of the week! We were teaching one of the Samoan families that we found. The parents are both members, but inactive, and the kids aren’t members. So we teach the parents in English, and then they translate to their kids in Samoan… pretty interesting. And whenever we go to their house, it is rude if we don’t eat with them. So we were eating this rubbery meat stuff with noodles… and Sister Finefeuiaki asked what it was, and they were like “Sheep Heart and intestines”…. I was like… Pardon???? So yep, I ate sheep heart and intestines… ew. It actually wasn’t so bad, when I didn’t know what I was eating…. hahahahaha. But other than that the food here is similar as Hawke’s bay! Lots of seafood, lots of lamb. I love it.

Spiritual thought: Alma 36:3 When we TRUST IN THE LORD, he will allow our lives to work out. Trusting in the Lord, means also trusting in His timing! It also means enduring our trials with happy hearts and patience. I know that when we endure our trials well, and trust in the Lord our lives will work out to be more better. I love you all!!

Tu meke aroha!

Ofa Atu,

Sister Weight

Pictures:

My counter!

My mean tan line!

Sister Finefeuiaki and I! (I’m not really that short… she’s just really tall:))

Where do I even begin! So last Saturday, Christmas Eve, Sister Leonard and I got to see two of our investigators get baptized! ( Jzirah, and Pattrisha! ) They were so cute! (Don’t worry, I will send all the photos later:)) So that was like crazy awesome. Sister Leonard was able to help me heaps because if you know me, I get stressed out easily. So that was a super great blessing to have her with me at that time!

Then we had Christmas! That was so fun! Christmas’s on the mission are SO fun! We got SO much chocolate and lollies from the ward members, Sister Leonard and I ate ourselves sick! But it was all good.

Then comes the sad news. I got transferred! I left my beloved Hawke’s bay and came to the Palmerston North Zone! I am serving in Feilding with my beautiful new companion Sister FineFeuiaki! She is pretty cool! She is originally from Tonga, but she has lived in Auckland for the past year. Her English is a bit rough, so we have to do language study for and hour every morning. That has been a test in my patience because sometimes I don’t know how to describe something… but it’s ok. We are both learning:)

Feilding is very different from Flaxmere, it is always cloudy and rainy here, and it is FREEZING. But that’s okay, I have become very accustomed to soggy shoes and wet hair. I am learning to love it here! AND we only cover one ward, so there is WAY less stuff to stress about:) Sister Finefeuiaki doesn’t like to run though… sad. But that’s ok, she puts up with me so that is good.

New Years was interesting! We had to be back in our flats by 7, so that we didn’t get in any accidents or anything like that. So we did a lot of paperwork… Whoooooohooooo…. par-tay.

Spiritual thought: The work is going well. I still love being a missionary. If I have learned anything this week, it is that I have been prepared to be here. All of my challenges, joyful moments, and all of my companions have taught me something that has helped me this week. Heavenly Father’s plan for us is perfect. It is absolutely flawless. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and he knows what we need, and when we need it. I didn’t know that I had been prepared for this area until I got here. And I think that sometimes we don’t even get to see the purpose of something that is happening to us. BUT I can promise you that we are all here in our separate circumstances for a reason. I love this gospel, and I love Heavenly Father’s plan for all of us.